New Zealand as It Is (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. SOCIETY. The subject of "Society " is dangerous ground,for society contains many gradations within itself, each claiming to be more or less its true representative. To one standing, as it were, upon an eminence, and taking a telescopic view of the globe, how puny and contemptible the narrow conceptions of mere cliquismmust appear when compared to the " Society " of the entire human race. The late Bishop of Lichfield, formerly Primate of New Zealand, realized the great idea of one comprehensive human family; and both by preaching and in conversation endeavoured to promote a wider-reaching unity. In the course of a life passed in hard work, he once preached in the four quarters of the globe within the short space of six months. " The longer I live," he used to say, " the smaller I think the world." Truth was, that the longer he lived, the more he recognized the necessity of an all- pervading Christianity; and, as he did so, the kinder and more tender he became to each member of what we call " Society." He went forth in an apostolic spirit to approach and reconcile the English and American churches; but was, whilst attempting to do this, not at all to be imposed upon by the hollow and specious fallacies of every speculative "Down Easter." The word Society, as a prefix to the present chapter,must be taken in its primary and more general sense. It must be taken as meaning " the persons collectively considered who live in any region or any period," rather than as " a number of persons associated for any temporary or permanent objects." Let no one coming to New Zealand seek to emulate the fanaticism of the recluse, or expect to find the haunts of the social butterfly. The colonists, as a rule, are a hardworking, painstaking, ordinary sort of people, adverse to " s...